


Taming Down a Demon

by Critique_Masochist



Series: Fire and Water Series [2]
Category: Good Omens (TV), Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett
Genre: Angel/Demon Relationship, Asexual Character, Asexual Relationship, Consensual Hand-Holding, Consensual Hugging, Consensual Touching, Constructive Criticism Welcome, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Haphephobia, Hurt/Comfort, Ineffable Husbands (Good Omens), M/M, Not real life accurate, Touch Phobia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-07
Updated: 2019-07-07
Packaged: 2020-06-24 02:07:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,311
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19714120
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Critique_Masochist/pseuds/Critique_Masochist
Summary: After confessing, Aziraphale tries to kiss his favourite demon; only to realize that Crowley has MAJOR issues with physical touch.No Problem, the angel knows that they can work through anything that comes between them… probably.(a series of short stories showing the slow but steady progress basically.)





	Taming Down a Demon

**Author's Note:**

> Now watch in horror and amazement as I, instead of continuing the story take got a thousand views, take a step back and go into flashback-land to explain how Crowley got used to the angels touch!!  
> Whyyy?  
> Because my girlfriend is continents away from me and I bloody miss being hugged by her.  
> Enjoy <3

It was 5 am in the morning and two lovebirds, that conveniently did not require sleep, used this opportunity to enjoy the quiet and deserted park.

The ducks were awake, surprisingly, but that didn’t bother the two. Actually, Crowley was glad they were awake. At least watching them would distract him.

“We’re outside, you have lots of space; you’re safe.” Aziraphale reminded before gently nudging the demon. Crowley responded by grabbing the icy metal railing that surrounded the pond. “I’m going to hold your hand now and it’s going to be…”

The angel paused awkwardly.

“You were going to say nice.”

“No, totally not. I was going to say _enjoyable_.” He lied.

Carefully, the Aziraphale untangled one of the demon’s hands from the railing.

With every one of his movements Crowley was leaning further into the metal, as if to steady himself. With the final finger was separated from its prison, the angel took his time to appreciate it.

It felt cold but soft and it was a sweet pink colour due to the chilly weather… and due to the railing-clutching. The angel ignored how the hand didn’t move at all, like it was frozen in time, when he curled his fingers around it.

“See? Nothing to be afraid of.” Aziraphale said cheerily, trying his absolute best _not to_ comment on the fact that Crowley was absolutely frozen in fear and pretty much a part of the metal railing at this point.

The serpent was looking desperately at the ducks, as if crying out for help and if the angel wasn’t mistaking, he had stopped breathing. Completely stopped.

He sighed; this wasn’t exactly what he had imagined dating Crowley to be like but at least he hadn’t escaped into a corner like last time.

Their ‘first kiss’ had been an absolute nightmare. How could Aziraphale have known that the demon had such huge issues with touch?? He had just leaned in unknowing and grabbed the demon by his lower back, pulling him in for the kill; only to be violently pushed away and hissed at from said corner.

Crowley had then proceeded to run away from him, crawling and the walls of the bookshop for no apparent reason. It had been ludicrously confusing and if the demon had only mentioned any of this before the chase wouldn’t have happened at all!

The angel still scolded himself for never realising though…

He should have known.

But Crowley didn’t need to be afraid. Aziraphale would never hurt him. This was normal. Holding hands was normal.

The angel dared to glance at his boyfriend once more only to see him shrink even more under his gaze.

“Why don’t you feed the ducks, dear?” he tried.

Crowley gave him a low hiss as an answer, which definitely meant no and possibly also meant ‘I cannot conceivably move right now’.

It was trusting, in a weird way, that the demon had anchored himself like this in order to not-run-away; ironically making him far more vulnerable then if he just held hands like a normal person.

But Aziraphale wasn’t judging him. No, he couldn’t. Crowley was a demon after all and there was a reason behind why they weren’t very touchy.

It was in their nature, or so the angel though. However, he thought he knew a lot of things and the more he looked into them the more he had started questioning the fact that he knew anything at all…

Still, it was common knowledge that demons, in general, were terrible people.

Poor fallen, abandoned souls that had lost their way; fighting and killing and hating each other. It took an outsider, someone who wasn’t so filled with fear and hate, to show them that it was alright to let their guard down every now and then.

Of course, the problem with that was the fact that people didn’t usually hug demons. Other demons didn’t hug demons either and angels definitely DID NOT hug demons.

There was a small but significant possibility that… well, that Crowley would never even enjoy touch. Especially the touch of an ethereal being such as Aziraphale…

The thought hurt very much and the angel was hoping that it wasn’t true but… he still loved Crowley. They had spent thousands of years together, without holding hands. They could make this work, one way or another.

Aziraphale miracled a piece of bread into existence and started throwing breadcrumbs at the ducks in the pond.

The ducks quickly gathered around them and raced to get the food first, quacking and eating and shaking their adorable tails. It seemed to calm the demon down just a bit.

“Dear?” aaand the demon tensed up once more. “This isn’t… this isn’t too bad, is it?”

No answer.

“I mean, it’s just that I’m pretty sure that touching an angel doesn’t hurt but-”

“’ss fine.”

Aziraphale decided that he probably shouldn’t push the issue any further. It was clear that Crowley could escape this situation if he really wanted to… by teleporting or slithering away or crawling on the walls… the angel had never even been aware that demons could do THAT.

It had been a week since Aziraphale had confessed his love and despite ‘the wall climbing incident’ two days ago, the confession had brought them a lot closer.

Crowley was being very hissy, sure, but he was clearly trying; inviting Aziraphale to dinner or lunch pretty much daily and doing his best to spend time with him. The angel had greatly appreciated that he had chosen to ‘try and make this weird ass thing work’ over whatever it was he did usually. (Mostly screaming at houseplants, as far as Aziraphale knew.)

He remembered fondly, how Crowley had jumped right into the topic of sex, mere hours after them officially dating.

“Angel, before we get any further in this… arrangement.” He had started, like a lawyer. “I would like to point out that sex is absolutely out of the question.”

The angel had been quite surprised, very much expecting the demon to be some sort of sexual deviant after no doubt sinning terribly at nights since the beginning of time. “Really?”

“Absolutely. Making love is very immature, you know.” He had claimed. “To be so mind-controlled by your feelings for someone that you would go to the end of the world for them, that you would do disgusting and _highly overrated_ things in the dark just to please them. It’s ridiculous. I refuse to take part in it.”

Aziraphale had just stared blankly at the person before him who must be, clearly must be joking.

“Mind-control?” and after getting no answer. “Immature??”

The demon raised an eyebrow. “What’s your point?”

“My point is, I am asexual too but you’re being awfully harsh to the rest of the population.” The angel had said.

This had led to a very strange and puzzling conversation about sexual attraction and it had slowly become clear that Crowley had never really grasped the concept.

The angel couldn’t blame him, the only reason he was so confident in his sexuality was because he was part of an ethereal community full of virgins just like him who all shared a very similar mindset. Crowley on the other hand…

There were a lot of things in the demon’s life that Aziraphale had never really paid any attention to. He had always tried to ignore the demons, well, _demonic_ aspects and tried to see him as just a very strange angel.

But Crowley was simply NOT an angel.

He was a good demon and as much as Aziraphale didn’t want to accept him as that he had to. He had to.

A soft snorting noise snapped Aziraphale back to reality. The vaguely humanoid pond-railing was dangling a large piece of break in front of the ducks, just out of reach.

_Immature_ , Aziraphale thought. Right. He loved this demon very much.

Despite still clutching the metal for dear life, Crowley was a lot more active now. He was even breathing again, which was a relief. Aziraphale rather liked it when Crowley, uh, breathed? Although it wasn’t exactly necessary for them, it was part of being alive and all of that nice stuff?

By the time people started appearing around the park, Crowley had finally relaxed enough to just gently hold-on-for-dear-life to the railing with **one hand** instead of his-entire-body-minus-one-hand. That was good, very good, not only because it would that nobody would bother them by asking if the demon was ok but also because it meant that there was hope.

The angel laughed to himself, of course there was hope. He had been just plain silly to think that he couldn’t even hold his love’s hand.

And just then, something very magical happened.

The stiff hand he had curled his fingers around, held him back.

If the angel didn’t know any better, he would have jumped into Crowley’s arms and kissed him right then and there!

* * *

* * *

“No!” Crowley whined, curling into a small ball at the far edge of the couch.

He was as far away from the angel as possible, without technically running away. He really didn’t want to do that. It was very embarrassing.

“I’ll be gentle.” The angel reassured, opening his arms and expecting HIM to walk right into them!

No, he couldn’t. Boyfriend or not, Aziraphale was an ANGEL! Everything in him shrieked warnings about how painful anything divine could be. A single drop of holy water was strong enough to melt right through his hand for somebody’s sake! No, it was far too dangerous.

Crowley uncurled slowly.

Fuck, what was he doing??? Was he really that stupid?! ANGEL ALARM! DON’T PUSH YOUR FUCKING LUCK WITH FUCKING ANGELS! But then again, Crowley had always been one to actively seek out danger. Well, maybe passively seek out danger. Vaguely slaunter in the general direction of danger; which was usually the general direction of Aziraphale.

Being around an angel, drinking his tea, going to his bookshop, getting absolutely shitfaced with him; it had taken a fuck load of courage. He wasn’t sure if he had any left in him.

“Don’t fucking touch me just stay right there and don’t move.” He ordered and the angel oblidged, lowering his arms and resting them on his sides instead.

He was only sitting on the sofa, now quite casually but there was still an openness to his pose and Crowley still felt like it was a trap. Like he would just snap shut the second he got too close.

He very slowly shifted closer to the angel. His heartbeat was getting so loud that it was the only thing he could hear. No traffic, no idly chit chat coming from outside, nothing just this loud, uneven drumming in his ears.

His breathing stopped, not that he needed to breathe, of course, but he still stopped simply because he couldn’t. He couldn’t breathe anymore.

He placed a hand on the angel’s thigh and then immediately pulled back, like a cat that had just touched a hot stove.

“It’s alright, dear.” _Crowley almost fell off the couch_. “I won’t move. Take your time.”

“Yeah, you _better_ not move.” The demon hissed defensively, trying to regain his confidence enough to approach the thigh again.

It was fine though; he had a **plan**. Prop himself up on the thigh, get in close and just gently hug the angel from the side. But he wasn’t exactly sure how hugging was even supposed to go. Was he supposed to squeeze? Or just hold? If he was meant to relax then this hug would DEFINATELY be an _utter disappointment._

He tried a different approach. An admittedly, very snake-like approach.

He got close, propped himself up on the thigh and hugged, for mere microseconds, the angel before him after which he quickly withdrew himself and curled back up into a very defensive pose.

The angel blinked a few times, like he wasn’t sure what had just happened. Crowley had never been so tense when Aziraphale turned to him. He squeezed his eyes shut and feared the worst.

“Dear, you did great.”

He inhaled sharply. Right, he had stopped breathing. Right. Right. He smiled nervously.

_He had done great._

* * *

* * *

The angel had been right about a few things. Mainly hand holding was strangely enjoyable. It differentiated things from how they were before as well, which Crowley appreciated. He had always assumed that if he had confessed, nothing would have really changed. Which, although it wasn’t a nightmarish though, made the act of love seem a lot more insignificant…

He did love the angel, he was absolutely certain of that, and with time he was starting to enjoy the angels warm touch as well.

It wasn’t too bad sitting next to Aziraphale at dinner, instead of always facing him. A subtle but welcome change of pace. It was also not entirely unbearable when the angel inexplicably decided to hold his hand during whatever it was that they were doing at the time.

He was getting used to it and Aziraphale was very proud of him for it.

“Nooo…” Crowley said, awkwardly picking up the hand that had landed on his shoulder and putting it back where it belonged. “Too much.”

It was a cute gesture, admittedly, half hugging at the cinema but it didn’t feel right. Crowley wanted to enjoy this movie; he didn’t want to be stressed out beyond reason.

The angel quietly tried out a different approach, manoeuvring his hand under and over the demons arm and curling his fingers into the top of his hand. Crowley sighed.

“Is the movie _too spooky_?”

“No, you’re just _too cute_.”

“Give it some time.” The demon teased. “I heard the ghost only shows up after she puts on those red shoes.”

She did, at that very moment, put on the shoes and the demon smirked devilishly at Aziraphale’s reaction. The hand on top of his tensed up and Crowley was surprised to find that he didn’t mind.

He did mind when the angel, inevitable, jump and scream and hug him but that was what hissing was good for. It was, all in all, a good experience.

* * *

* * *

The demon wheezed and shivered under his touch. It had been 5 minutes and Aziraphale was starting to feel really bad for doing this to somebody he cared about so deeply. Crowley didn’t deserve this!

Well, he did. Crowley _deserved_ hugs but he didn’t deserve **this**!

Aziraphale attempted to let go of the shivering form he was holding but Crowley clawed into him and started to whisper incoherent pleads into his shoulder.

“Don’t let me go, please don’t let me go.” Was among some of them.

It felt terrible, witnessing an inner fight this intense but it had to be done. It was too late now, mostly due to the claws. The angel drew soothing circles into his friends back but it seemed to only intensify the others panic.

“Dear.” The angel whispered, trying his very best not to scare the demon away. “What can I do to…”

“Can I bite you?” a shaky voice replied.

Aziraphale squinted. He squinted at he wall since the only other person in the room was currently the quivering mess that had clawed itself into his shoulder but he squinted nonetheless.

“You mean, like, poison me?”

“No, just…” and then Crowley drew a sharp breath. Breathing seemed to be hard but he needed to breath to talk. “…gently bite.”

Aziraphale squinted harder. What in the world was a gentle bite?

“Show me what that is.”

He felt a warm breath on his shoulder and two sharp dog teeth sank into him, just enough to let him feel it but not enough to actually hurt or even penetrate the shirt he was wearing, let alone his skin. It was as if the demon was resting his teeth on him.

Strangely, Crowley relaxed a lot after doing this. He started breathing, very shaky and ragged breaths but still breathing. Aziraphale knew better than to shift or draw more circles into the demon, no he was supposed to stay still and let the demon work through whatever he was working through in his head right now.

Probably something along the lines of:

~~FUCKSHITFUCKFUCKANGELFUCKSHITNOFUCKFUCKNONONONONOSHITFUCK~~

And Aziraphale realised that Crowley probably knew a whole lot more swear words than him and probably in many other colourful languages too. So maybe more something along the lines of

~~FUCKSCHEISELANETLEROLSUNHERŞEYEFUCKNONEDENFUCKINGBULLSHITCUNTCOCKSUCKER~~

No, he was still probably very off.

“I fucking hate this.” The demon gasped, panting.

“You do?”

“No.” the demon whined, burying his face in the others shoulder.

No teeth yet he was still breathing. He was breathing and he wasn’t biting or clawing or shivering too horribly. This was very good.

Aziraphale gently pulled him a little closer, ignoring the sharp fingernails that had automatically dug themselves into his skin. Like this, he could feel Crowley’s heartbeat… which uh… uuuuhhhh…

Aziraphale realized that, maybe, just maybe Crowley _wasn’t_ relaxing. Wasn’t getting used to him. Nope, the demon had clearly pushed himself way too far and was currently _fainting_.

“Dear, that’s quite enough.” He said, reaching out slowly and removing the claws digging themselves into his shoulder. He removed the demon enough to see his face. “Oh dear…”

Crowley was crying. He was crying and he was just way too pale for his own good. The angel held both of his hands until the demons breathing evened out a bit.

“Love, can you see me?”

Crowley looked around, unfocused, confused, generally in the direction of the angel but not quite finding his eyes.

“Crowley, you should have told me that we were going too fast for-“

“We’re not… we’re not going too fast.” He panted. “I’m just too fucking slow.”

He wiped the tears away, blushing.

“Crowley…”

“Angel, it’s been a month. An entire month, I should have.. by now I should have-“

“Dear, I didn’t wait 6000 years just to rush you.” Aziraphale smiled reassuringly. “It’s fine even if you want to wait for a few years.”

“I don’t want to wait.” Crowley hissed. “All we do is wait, we just keep waiting until something terrible happens and then we mope around and wait some more.”

The poor serpent was clearly holding back tears. He had stopped breathing again as well, which was not good at all. He seemed stressed out beyond reason.

“If you want to be alone, I could…” and he pointed upstairs. The angel knew how much Crowley _hated_ being seen crying.

“Don’t fucking leave me now!” the serpent hissed, only to briefly collapse into the others chest.

Aziraphale didn’t move. He couldn’t. It felt like the slightest movement could break Crowley. His heartbeat was through the roof, no wonder he fainted. Too much stress, way too much stress. Gently, the angel stroked the others hair. He looked around the backroom and suddenly a very fine looking wine bottle appeared.

Alcohol usually calmed the demon down. Although, if he wasn’t mistaken, Crowley had started smoking recently as well.

Slowly, Crowley rose from Aziraphale’s chest and rubbed his eyes. He coughed a few times and panted, getting some much-needed oxygen into his system.

The angel said nothing, only offering the other some wine.

“Thank you.” Crowley mumbled, before sipping the liquid.

Aziraphale waited for him to finish before saying anything.

“I love you.”

Crowley looked over, unfocused and confused. “What?”

“I love you.”

“Yeah, I heard you but like what?”

“I would love you even if you didn’t hug me.”

The demon looked away.

“I would love you even if you hissed at me every once in a while.”

The angel filled himself up a glass as well.

“I would love you even more if you told me when something is wrong.” He said, not in a pressuring way but… worried.

Crowley let out a shaky breath. “…right. Uh… yeah. Ok.”

The angel smiled. Proud.

Why was he proud, Crowley pondered. He was being oh, so disappointing. He was being weak, in every sense of the word. And yet… yet this stupid angel didn’t care. Of course he didn’t care, he was Aziraphale, the most patient and kind hearted person in the universe!

Crowley sighed in relief. It was fine. It didn’t matter. No matter how much he did wrong, no matter how many times he hissed or scratched at Aziraphale; the angel simply didn’t care. It was as if he knew… he knew that….

“I love you too.” He said. “I just… I wanted to show you that. And I just can’t bring myself to…”

“Dear…” the angels worried expression grew into a smile. “Don’t be an idiot.”

They laughed.

“’m not!” Crowley protested. “I’m just really bad at… everything.”

“No, you’re not! Dear, I have been quietly observing your many subtleties for millennia! And let me tell you, ever since I confessed you have NOT been subtle with how much you love me.” the angel placed a hand on the demon’s chest, happy to see the other not flinch at the motion. “I can feel it.” He said before gently caressing the demons face. “And I can see it. You’re doing everything you can. Please stop worrying and just try and enjoy this.”

“It’s supposed to be enjoyable.” Crowley remembered.

“Exactly.”

“Right.”

They held hands.

“I love you.”

And then, very briefly, they kissed.

* * *

* * *

“This is the gayest thing I have ever done.” The demon claimed.

“Crowley, you’re being ridiculous.”

“No, really, it is.”

“It is not!”

“Aziraphale, we’re naked!”

The angel blushed at that. “I’m not going to bathe with my clothes on.”

“You cannot deny it.” The serpent said.

“You know what? Fine. Yep, you got me. I allowed YOU to join ME in taking a bath because I wanted us to reach the peak of gay-hood!” the angel rolled his eyes. “And now that we are on the top, you’re going to-“

“Oh, forgive us Lord for we have sinned.”

“CROWLEY!!”

The demon laughed hysterically and got splashed right in the face.

“Don’t tempt me demon!” Aziraphale shouted, having made his wings visible and clearly ready to unleash a tsunami level wave.

“For somebodies’ sake, your wings are a mess!” the demon shouted in pure horror.

“Die foul fiend!!”

Crowley expertly avoided the water attack by diving under and then lunging himself at the angel. They did a few flips and a lot of flailing until both of them at no idea what was going on anymore and then they resurfaced.

“I was wrong.” The demon panted.

“That was the gayest thing?”

“Yep. So, anyway, if you won’t let me brush those stupid fluffy wings of yours then I won’t talk to you for a week.”

“Oh goodness gracious!” the angel mocked.

Another water war was inevitable.

* * *

* * *

Crowley had always been immensely good at falling asleep.

But not like this.

This is exactly the kind of thing he had been worried about when he agreed to sleep in the sae bed as Aziraphale; unintentional sleep hugging.

No, it was fine. He wasn’t _slightly panicking_. He was totally calm enough to sleep like this.

I mean, psh, it was _merely_ _a full body hug_. That was all.

_That was all._

_It was fine._

“Angel.” He whispered, trying to get away.

“Mnn, stay.” The angel hugged him tighter.

Oh, GREAT. Good job, Crowley you made it WORSE. Well, he supposed that that was his job but maybe in this situation it wasn’t exactly the desired outcome.

If he was completely honest with himself, a part of him wanted not to move; mainly to surprise Aziraphale when he woke up.

‘Oh goodness, Crowley I hugged you in my sleep and you didn’t even move away how cute!’

But then again…

‘Goodness Crowley, you didn’t get any sleep at all! You should have just woken me up instead of letting yourself be tortured like this…’

He sighed. There was no winning.

Except… maybe there was??

He shifted, slowly and silently, into his snake form and slithered out of Aziraphale’s grasp.

_AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA, YES!_

And just like that, Crowley broke free and fell asleep on his pillow.

The blinding light coming from between the curtains was enough to wake up the relatively light sleeper Aziraphale (relative to the century long sleeper Crowley that is). He yawned and stretched and noticed that he had grown seemingly heavier overnight. He also magically had a scarf on and Crowley was nowhere to be found-

Oh.

The large black snake was curled up loosely around his neck. It’s split tongue was sticking out and it was making repetitive hissing noises, which the angel realized were snores.

Aziraphale wasn’t exactly sure why or how Crowley had ended up as a snake around his neck but he decided that the demon hugging him like this in his sleep was absolutely adorable.

They had been meaning to go to the park again that day, was it wise to wake up the serpent right now?

Nah.

They would just go another day.

They had all of the time in the world after all, and snuggling like this was much more pleasant then getting ready to go outside when it was so early in the morning.

Gently, he pet the smooth scales that coiled around him and closed his eyes.

* * *

* * *

It was 5 am in the morning and the park was quiet and deserted.

Surprisingly, not even the ducks were awake, possibly because the two supernatural entities had not disturbed them that morning.

No, the two lovebirds had been too tired and lazy, despite not requiring sleep, to come all they way to the pond railing.

Even after they awoke, they remained in bed and talked and joked and laughed.

One of them gently placed their hand over the other.

Nobody was around to see it… which didn’t matter since nothing happened.

And despite that, it was completely and utterly

Enjoyable.

**Author's Note:**

> As an amateur writer, I would love to hear your thoughts!  
> Please feel free to comment anything :3


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